EU greenhouse gas emissions down 23% but further effort needed to reach 2030 target

The European Union (EU) cut its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2 % in 2018, according to preliminary estimates released by the European Environment Agency.

The EEA analysis shows that the EU is firmly on track to achieve its 2020 target to reduce GHG emissions by 20 %, compared with 1990 levels.

However, Member States’ projections are not yet in line with the target for 2030 of at least a 40 % reduction in GHG emissions. According to the EEA analysis, Member States’ current policies can deliver only a 30 % reduction by 2030, while implementing all reported planned policies could bring the total reduction to 36 %.

Based on 2019 reports to the EEA, only Greece, Portugal and Sweden expect to reach their 2030 Effort Sharing targets on time with current policies and measures in place. Seven other Member States (Belgium, Croatia, France, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia and Spain) project to achieve their targets with additional policies.

Read and download the EEA report: Trends and projections in Europe 2019. 

Original source: EEA
Published on 31 October 2019